Do startups really understand the "quarter-inch hole" when designing a new business model?
"Customers do not want a quarter inch drill. They want a quarter inch hole."
This classic instructional anecdote is often cited in customer-centric discussions, but it only scratches the surface of the real issue.
How to scale your startup
Don't just think about what your customers want. Think about what they need to feel successful, fulfilled, and satisfied. Don't just create products. Create experiences that make a real impact in the lives of your customers. Don't just focus on the drill. Focus on the bigger picture and empower your customers to achieve their desired outcomes.
How to be the most customer-centric
Understanding the customer's needs goes far beyond just the "hole" they desire. It's about delving deeper into their journey and discovering what truly drives their decision-making process. Making a “hole” in a wall is only a functional need. What is their true and final intent, understanding that the hole is just a dependency or an intermediate step towards their goal?
A Mental Model for Product Development and Customer Discovery
Ask, “Why do they want a hole?” You know that isn’t what will delight them! Do they want to hang a painting? Yes? That really means they want to beautify their home. That is really their job to be done. Understand that true motivation to design the best product to delight and retain them.
Understanding the customer's unmet needs is critical to designing effective products that drive satisfaction, retention, user growth, and revenue. How does that connect? From creating the ads, to getting them to landing pages, to getting them to sign up even for a free trial, you have to work hard to capture their motivation, distinguish yourself from competitors and emphasize how you make their life better. You have to elevate their desired delight in your copy, throughout your funnel.
Here's an exercise we run to clarify the purpose of the product, and prioritise the feature roadmap.
Where many fail
Stopping at the “hole” helps you design and sell a better drill perhaps.
Understanding they want to beautify their home helps you design a compelling experience from start to finish, and create true delight by being the brand, in their mind, that “truly gets it”.
Customer Pains
The company that gets them to a hole in the wall doesn't understand that they now have concrete dust to sweep up, having to dig the vacuum out of the storage cupboard, and even then, hang the painting, get to be level, and eventually, patch up that same hole when they eventually move out.
The company that “truly gets them” makes a (3M) Kommand hook to remove all the side effects of drills, clean up and wall patching to beautify a home by hanging a painting.
The level of clarity that aligns every function in the business
The clarity of "truly getting it" helps target people who rent, or move more regularly, or dont want to operate drills. This is a much more refined and actionable positioning that marketing and sales can really work with.
Aligning the C-Suite with Digital, Leading Indicator Metrics
By combining customer journey analysis, outcome driven innovation theory and customer psychology, we know that the key to success is understanding the customer's journey to achieve their desired outcomes. By doing so, we can create products that not only meet their needs, but exceed their expectations and drive positive results in terms of retention metrics, user growth, and revenue.
Mental Models of Industry Leaders
Don't just think about what your customers want. Think about what they need to feel successful, fulfilled, and satisfied. Don't just create products. Create experiences that make a real impact in the lives of your customers. Don't just focus on the drill. Focus on the bigger picture and empower your customers to achieve their desired outcomes.
This is where customer-centric marketing comes in. Understanding the customer's needs goes far beyond just the "hole" they desire. It's about delving deeper into their journey and discovering what truly drives their decision-making process. Making a “hole” in a wall is only a functional need. What is their true and final intent, understanding that the hole is just a dependency or an intermediate step towards their goal?
Ask, “Why do they want a hole?” You know that isn’t what will delight them! Do they want to hang a painting? Yes? That really means they want to beautify their home. That is really their job to be done. Understanding that true motivation to design the best product to delight and retain them.
So, let's go beyond the surface and dive deep into the customer's journey. Let's design products that truly meet their needs and drive their desired outcomes. Let's create solutions that make a real impact in the lives of our customers.
Where Many Fail
Let's take the example of a company that stops at the "hole". They may be able to design and sell a better drill, but they fail to see the bigger picture. The company that truly understands their customers knows that hanging a painting is only a small part of the experience.
They know that the customer now has concrete dust to sweep up,
having to dig the vacuum out of the storage cupboard, and even then,
getting the painting to be level and eventually,
patching up that same hole when they eventually move out.
The company that “truly gets it” makes a (3M) Kommand hook to remove all the side effects of drills, clean up, and wall patching to beautify a home by hanging a painting.
Exceed Expectations with Differentiation and Relevance:
The company that “truly gets it” makes a (3M) Kommand hook to remove all the side effects of drills, clean up, and wall patching to beautify a home by hanging a painting.
Be the product that even lets them move paintings around and add more without the fuss.
And guess what, that clarity of benefits desired helps target people who rent, or move more regularly, or don't want to operate drills.
That is a much more refined and actionable positioning that marketing and sales can really work with.
Inspire the C-Suite
We can create products that not only meet their needs, but exceed their expectations and drive positive results in terms of retention metrics, user growth, and revenue.
Don't just think about what your customers want. Think about what they need to feel successful, fulfilled, and satisfied.
Don't just create products. Create experiences that make a real impact in the lives of your customers. Don't just focus on the drill. Focus on the bigger picture and empower your customers to achieve their desired outcomes.
Let's chat more on the digital transformation and new revenue design that grows your business. https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidisaacm/